Do you remember high school English class? I loved English, especially my senior year. I'm pretty sure that's when I was introduced to Robert Frost. Now really this poem didn't have a tremendous impact on my life, as a matter of fact, I read it with as much interest as I read most poems. I'm much more of a short story girl you see. The poem well, it just couldn't ever manage to find it's way out of my head. And the most random moments in my life I will think of this poem (and the picture that went with it in our text book). Not when it would really work, like say when I was choosing a school to attend, or a major concentration for college, or where to move. No instead I would think of it while watching a Jag game, or during the scary part of a movie, sometimes when I'm brushing my teeth in the morning (actually quite a few times then). If you know me, and my sometimes very lacking memory you'll remember that it took my a year to remember David's birthday, and that I have the most detailed planner ever so as not to forget anything. You'll also remember that I have lists everywhere in my house, because if I don't write things down they won't last longer than a few hours. But this poem, this poem has never gone anywhere. I can't manage to remember packing tape in 4 visits to Walgreen's (one visit specifically for packing tape), but I can remember a poem I read in 12th grade from a literature text book, as well as visualize the picture that went with it.
So what am I talking about? I'm not asking for sympathy, or a diagnosis to my forgetfulness. It is just that recently during what I assumed was another sporadic pop back to Robert Frost in 12th grade... the poem actually applied. Actually, it applies very well to a lot of things in my life at this very moment. There are a few things on our plate that require some thoughts and serious intersection, and during one of my more thoughtful moments it came. And you know, it was so perfect it almost made me misty. Oh inspiration. This is huge. Does this mean I can stop my escapades with Robert? Is this why I've remembered it? Just in case this is the end of Robert and I, I need to document it. This moment, this year, this is exactly what I need to remember.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Not quite the picture that I remember, but it works I think.
